We needed the rain -- and we got it! The down side is that now our streams are high and finding the insects isn't that easy. Still, today when I could find a wad of decomposed leaves I could find nymphs. And the light was just right for some good photos.
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1. Spiny crawler mayfly, Drunella tuberculata. I seem to find one every year in Buck Mt. Creek, though Beaty notes these nymphs as being "uncommon." ("The Ephemeroptera of North Carolina," p. 48) Drunella nymphs can be identified by their muscular fore femora, on the leading edge of which there is a uneven row of tubercles. You can sort of see them in this photo,
but they're much clearer in this microscope photo of Drunella cornutella.
The key feature for the species ID is the pair of tubercles on the occiput. These.
I got a great pic of these several years ago when I got a nymph to look directly into the camera.
But that was a real beauty today.
This is one of our "summer" Baetidae. It's fairly common fairly, and it's easy for us to make the ID. 1) Note how the cercal segments (tails) are banded -- at the base, in the middle, and at the tips.
And note the pale "parentheses" ( ) marks medially on each of the terga. (Clearly visible in the first photo.)
3. Flatheaded mayfly, Leucrocuta sp. (hebe?).
Leucrocuta is distinguished from genus Heptagenia by the lack of fibrilliform at the base of gill number 7.
Beaty cautions to leave Leucrocuta nymphs at the level of genus. However, most sources seem to agree that the pale markings on terga 4-5 and 7-8 are indicative of L. hebe.
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4. Number 4, the flatheaded mayfly, Maccaffertium modestum. Very pretty caramel color.
This is one type of M. modestum -- fairly uniform in color with fairly plain femora. The other -- this one --
is darker in color with femora that are heavily marked. Both types are found in Buck Mt. Creek.
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Up to the Rapidan River this weekend. Sure hope the water keeps dropping.
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